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Margies lived all her life in blue-collar South Boston. Now 30 years since she was a teen, she recounts the fates of former Southies. Sheila Sheen odd. And Marty McDermotts doing time in Walpole prison. The Burke brothers? Who knows, but it cant have been good. And homeless Cookie died on the street just days ago.

Margies doing better? Dont kid yourself. She just lost her cashiers job at the Dollar Store. Her deadbeat husbands who knows where. Daughter Joyce has special needs, which is why Margie was often late to work, and the landladys already tapping her foot for the rent.

For two months around the time Joyce was conceived? Margie dated Mickey Dillon. He made it out of the hardscrabble, Old Harbor projects and became a fertility doctor. Now hes got a classy roost on Chestnut Hill. Margie and friends remember him as good people. Even though they havent seen each other in decades, and even though hes probably lace curtains the opposite of a gravel-mouthed Southie maybe he can her find work.

In an interview, David Lindsay-Abaire said he gets the idea for a play when two ideas collide. He hailed from Bostons south side, made (in)famous in The Departed and Good Will Hunting and also for its antibusing stance in the 70s. He left, got an education, but found that some part of him will always be a Southie.

In the beginning, his Good People feels odd to watch. Its about subjects you almost never see in a theater. First and foremost, Margie needs a job. She must make ends meet or she and Joyce could end up like Cookie. Shell even babysit, if it pays more than her babysitter charges while Margies working. For those who can afford theater tickets, heres how the who-knows-how-many-jobless struggle day to day. Today.

Good People is also about social class, practically a taboo topic on American stages. Lindsay-Abaire explores differences, but without sociological generalities or authorial intrusions. Instead, in Act Two, he creates a triangle: a have-not (Margie, at Chestnut Hill in search of a job any job); a have (Kate, Mikes Georgetown-educated, African-American wife); and Mike, a nouveau-have, convinced he made it out of Southie on his own, but unable to sever ties with the old neighborhood.

Stevie, the store manager, says Maggie makes everything so difficult. She pushes buttons, as if she wants to hurt others as much as shes been hurt. As Margie, a terrific Eva Kaminsky never skimps on her irksome qualities (if she went into the audience, Margie would interrogate patrons to expose pretense and best kept secrets). At the same time, Kaminsky shows that underneath and if she had some luck the plays title could refer to Margie.

She needs a helping hand. Mike, whom the play practically shreds, denies he ever had one. Silver-haired R. Ward Duffy bounces Mike between social classes, his past and present. The friction shatters his patrician veneer.

Denitsa Bliznakovas excellent costumes cut to the quick. When she goes to Chestnut Hill, Margies best outfit cant compete with Kates designer-tailored, lounge-about-the-house togs. As Kate, elegant Nedra McClyde exudes restraint and sophistication, then fires sharp jabs when the gloves come off.

Paul Mullins directs with a deft, almost invisible hand. When the Southies gather James McMenamin (Stevie), Carol Halsted (Jean), and especially Robin Pearson Rose (Dottie) Mullinss stagings are a politically incorrect, internecine hoot.

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